Business Intelligence (BI) Project Rescue

Project Management Services For Cognos Report Development

Software:

Cognos Suite

Client:

Post secondary education company

What we provided:

The client had a project underway to implement Cognos, build a data warehouse and associated ETL processes, and build multiple reports for their Marketing and Admissions data. Another consulting company was engaged to do this work on a time and materials basis but the project was over budget, behind schedule, and had not created any useable reports.

The results:

Think assessed the situation, created a plan for project completion, and managed to it. Initial work involved creating a plan with the initial development team, reviewing specs, and creating a process by which specs would be agreed to by technical resources, and agreeing to a timeline. Think worked with the client to review and create a fixed price contract with the prior consulting company for technical resources as a way to reduce risk. We provided project management, business analysis and supplemental development resources and managed the entire project team, including the initial consulting company, additional Cognos resources, client internal resources, and our own team. The project was turned around, and useable, valuable reporting was delivered.

What the client said:

“Understanding that over 50% of all BI projects fail because of missed deadlines and vendor and resource issues, we reached out to Think Systems for an honest assessment of our project’s risks. Immediately, Think took ownership of the project as if we had hired a new COO just for this deliverable! What impressed me the most about this team was that they were more concerned about making the best decisions for our project rather than maximizing their own revenue. They talked honestly with us about risks, proposed decisive actions to move the project forward, and executed exactly as they said they would. With their help, we are proud of the product we delivered and our business customers are finally getting the valuable data that they need, presented in a meaningful way.”